As a counter-counterpoint, I am a Unix sysadmin constrained to use a MS Windows PC for my job and Cygwin is an absolute godsend. I wouldn't be a quarter as effective in my job without it as it gives me access to most of my familiar tools. In a purely Windows world Cygwin might make less sense I guess.

I can understand your point of view. If you mostly work in a *nix environment, but occasionally have to use a Windows machine, having the *nix shell of your preference available would undoubtedly improve your productivity for those brief interactions. Though if I were in that position, I'd probably just install a VM instance of my preferred *nix dist on the Windows machines.

From a Windows user POV, the problem I have will Cygwin is that it is neither one thing nor the other. The worst of both worlds. By emulating (badly) those native *nix features that windows does not provide for natively; and effectively disabling much of the feature set that Windows does provide natively; you end up with a sluggish and clumsy environment that is "okay" (perhaps) for the occasional visit, but not somewhere you want to spend any great amount of time.

I actively prefer Windows not for its GUI aspects -- although they are still (IMO) superior to any of the various *nix windowing environments -- but because I much prefer cmd.exe to (z|k|z|ba)sh, which Cygwin imposes upon me.

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

If you mostly work in a *nix environment, but occasionally have to use a Windows machine

I'm always using a Windows machine because that's what my company insists I use to do my work. The standard build is pure MS Windows, suitable for all the management twonks who decide these things and who think Powerpoint and that well known database system Excel are all anyone needs :-/

just install a VM instance of my preferred *nix dist

If the laptop provided wasn't one of Noah's hand-me-downs that struggles to even boot I probably would, although my preference would be for a native Linux laptop with a Windows VM just for the corporate stuff like email and timesheets. Unfortunately, they won't let us do that so we have to add our own choice of tools, things like PuTTY and Cygwin, on top of the standard build to make our jobs easier.

By emulating (badly)

I don't know. Perhaps it does some things badly but it does the things I need very well. It gives me an X-Window Server so that I can run an xterm and use my favourite editor (nedit) to develop Perl scripts or display server GUI tools on my screen. SSH keys work seamlessly between Cygwin and Linux and I can use scp, sftp or rsync to deploy the scripts and move files between my laptop and servers. It gives me utilities like ccrypt, cpio and tar and plenty more. In short, it does what I need.

I much prefer cmd.exe to (z|k|z|ba)sh

I much prefer the more mouse-centric copy'n'paste of xterms and find that of cmd.exe extremely clunky when forced to use it on terminal servers that don't have Cygwin installed, which is all of them, a battle yet to be won :-)

Until they allow me to use a Linux laptop for my work I'll continue to use what is for me the next best thing, Cygwin.